Run, Je-nnay, Run...

This past Saturday I ran my first 5k ever! I had seen this particular fun walk/run listed a while ago in the Champaign Park District Fall booklet and I marked the date on the calendar. I had been waiting for this day for a while.

A brief synopsis of my running background.... well, there isn't one! I have never been a runner or wanted to run. My first (& last) encounter with running happened in junior high. I was on the track team (I have no idea why!) and I ran the shortest relay there was. We had a Saturday track meet at EIU and I remember hopping on the bus to go do my short relay. The coach came up to me and said that one of their mile runners wasn't going to be able to run and she said "Jenn, you can do it. You're going to run the mile today." My throat got tight and I immediately felt nauseous. I ran the mile... well, part of it anyway. I ended up just quitting in the middle and crying because I couldn't go on... or so I thought at that time. So, yeah, I hated running.

Earlier this summer I was encouraged by someone at the church to start running. She said to take baby steps. I would run 1 minute and then walk 3... and eventually I got so I could run a few blocks and then walk.. and on an on. Soon I was running a route that I had establisted to be barely under 2 miles.

I wanted to do the 5k just so I could say that I had run one. My goal was to not walk at all. I had never run more than 2 miles so I was a little nervous about 3.1! But, I did it! I didn't walk at all and boy did it feel good when I was done! I can't wait to run another one! Maybe I'll be able to run a 10k soon????

Madalyn and Mark cheered me on as I left and as I crossed the finish line. Madalyn had more fun playing in the sand box in the park but it was neat to hear her yelling "mommy! mommy!" as I ran past her! It was a great morning and I had sooo much fun!!!

Jesus is her friend.

Last night we were on our way to church and Madalyn and I were having a dialogue about her friends. She has an array of names that she will ramble off when we talk about her friends... Edie, Emma, Baby Vio, Leena, Abby, Rachel - those are usually the typical ones.

I randomly asked her, while driving, "so which friends will we see tonight at church?" She thought for a minute and then I heard her say "umm... JESUS!" I responded with something like this, "we do learn about Jesus at church and we can meet with him there, but I'm curious which of your friends will be there... like Ally, Ashley..? She responded again with "umm... JESUS!"

Apparently she's trying to tell me that "Mom! Jesus is my friend!"

It was too cute!

A random weekend project

This past Thursday we had another showing on our house. The next day Mark curiously called the realtor that showed our house and asked if her client had any suggestions on what we could do for improvements. She mentioned that in older homes typically people are looking for hardwood. Mark hung up the phone and I saw him over in the corner of the living room peeling up a corner of the carpet. He excitedly let me know that the hardwood in the particular area looked good. We knew there was hardwood under the carpet but obviously didn't know in what condition it was in. Next, Mark was off in another corner peeling it up to see what was under. And another corner.... I went about by business listening to him in the background going through the scenario that we could pull up the carpet and make our house hardwood because that seems to be a selling point. I didn't think too much about it until I saw him PULLING UP THE CARPET IN THE HALLWAY!!! Apparently Mark got the idea in his head and wanted to get started on the project right now! (this was friday afternoon) By Saturday morning at 9am we had the all the carpet on the upstairs floor pulled up - dining room, living room, hallway. Our bedrooms were already hardwood. We had the tacks and staples pulled up (man, does that make your forearms sore!) and we had it vacuumed and swept and the furniture put back in. Fortunately the hardwood is in perfect condition - 90% of it! We're so thankful. We called our realtor and the first words out of his mouth were "what were you thinking!" Apparently it's a big risk to pull up carpet because you never know what's underneath. The hardwood could have been in horrible shape. But, we were fortunate. We're looking into estimates now on having someone come in and sand it and refinish it to make it nice and shiny! Mark would just do the job himself but I'm worred about the dust and his lungs. I'm thankful that it's livable right now. It's so different having hardwood throughout. It's louder but I definitely think I like it better. It's taking some time to get used to but I think I'm really going to like it. It really makes the room look a whole lot bigger, that's for sure! We haven't put all of our furniture back in yet because we don't want to have to move it twice when the guys come in to refinish it. Here are some before and after pictures....

What all can happen in a 24 hour trip in Galesburg??

Madalyn and I decided to go with Mark on an overnight work trip last night. He has 3 clients up around Galesburg, IL and he has to be there first thing in the morning (7am) when he visits so that he's able to meet with the night shift and the day shift nurses. So, instead of him leaving at 4:30am we decided to turn it in to an overnight trip. We left yesterday afternoon. We got to our hotel in Galesburg, a Marriott, and got our things up to the room. Mark and I were starving so we decided to go out and get a bite to eat. We had been talking about Outback the whole trip up but when we got to our hotel we found out that there was no Outback... The only "steakhouse" we could find was Sirloin Stockade. It was no Outback. We're just not big fans of buffets and the steak wasn't great. Oh well. I was so hungry I didn't really care.

Things seemed to be going well. Mady was doing a great job in the restaurant. The waitress even commented on how well she was behaving. Very soon after that the excitement picked up (well, "excitement" for us). I went to pick Mady up from her high chair so we could wash her hands and she was soaking wet. I guess with all the traveling and unpacking at the hotel, I had forgotten to change her diaper. We ended up walking back to the hotel (Mady and I) as I didn't want to put her in her carseat (fortunately the restaurant where we ended up was right behind our hotel so Mark drove back and we walked).

We changed Mady's diaper, put on a new swimmer diaper, changed into our suits, and decided to take Mads for a swim in the pool. She had a blast. She loved jumping in and having Dad catch her! It was really fun. Then it was back to the room.. Let me set up this scenario... Hotel bathrooms aren't that big. By the time you open the door, you're basically at the toilet. Well, I was going to the bathroom and Madalyn decided to come right in and play with the door. At that point, dad decides to go ahead and get her and take off her wet clothes and diaper. Ummm... don't mind mom here. So now, we're all three in the bathroom, and the diaper comes off. The bathroom floor is wet so I told Mady to step back on the carpet as I didn't want her to slip. About that time I hear "Oh no, she's peeing." Yep, she peed in the middle of the bathroom floor AND THEN fell in the puddle because the floor was super slick. Oh my. Wow, that was a lot of action and too many people for one hotel bathroom. And of course, Mady thought it was funny so she started running away from Dad, all around the room.

I never knew Mark was so good at making blanket tents. We had a bigger room this time around. We decided to put the pack-n-play over by the door, in front of the bathroom. I was getting Mady into her PJ's and I noticed Mark was over fiddling with her bed. He had that long cover that goes over the end of the hotel bed basically as a decoration. He stuffed one corner behind the mirror hanging on the wall and the other corner was stuffed under the microwave. Then he put a chair in front of the pack-n-play apparently so Mady couldn't see us or the football game that we were watching (or she'd never go to sleep!) From what I hear, Mark's parents did this to him a lot in the good ole days. Now he has that pleasure....

Mark got up this morning to go to his appt at 6am. Mady woke up too and he moved her to the bed with me. Nope, I wasn't lucky enough to have her go back to sleep. She started sticking her fingers up my nose and in my ears and saying "mom-mee? mom-mee?" while I was trying to go back to sleep. I eventually turned on Sesame Street and she watched "Mo-Mo" (Elmo) and "Duck" (Big Bird!) I couldn't get her to understand that Big Bird isn't a duck. She doesn't watch tv at home so this was a treat.

While Dad was at his appts we went swimming again and I'm sad to say that I didn't learn my lesson the first time. She peed again! Yep, as soon as I took that diaper off. This time I won't tell you where it happened... although I will tell you there were no falls involved!

Mads did pretty well on the way home. She slept for about an hour and a half and then we woke her up for lunch. We went to Subway and I had Dad get her out of the car. I was ordering my sandwiche and Mark went to go put her in her seat. She was waddling a little bit as she was walking and then I heard Mark say "oops, I put her shoes on the wrong feet... That would probably be why she's been saying uh-oh for the last couple of minutes." Yep, that would be it! we love you dad!

The adventures of the Bettinger Family in a simple 24 hour period. It was a long 24 hours but I do have to say that it was FUN and that's what we're about. It sure does make for great memories!!!

Another appointment...

Mark had his appointment with the ENT doctor on Friday. It was originally scheduled for September 11th and then got moved back. Apparently Mark's primary doctor wanted him in earlier because they called on Thursday afternoon and had him come in on Friday. We headed over there not really sure what to expect. We both were a little scared.

The reason that this appt had been scheduled was because of Mark's adenopathy. Basically that's a big word for "large or swollen lymph nodes." His primary doctor was a little concerned because back when Mark was having all the neck pain he also lost his voice. In addition, on the CT scan, they had found some enlarged lymph nodes. Dr. Davison was concerned that there might be something more serious going on. So he sent us to ENT (Ear, Nose, and Thoat).

Anyway, we headed over and the doctor decided he wanted to put a scope up through Mark's nose and then down into his neck to check out his vocal cords and his larynx. It was an extremely uncomfortable procedure for him to go through but he did great. They recorded the procedure on video so Mark could see what we were seeing on the screen. It was actually quite interesting. We walked out with good news. His vocal cords looked fine - no injury there. Good! No polyps or cancerous tumors in his neck. Good! The Dr came to the conclusion that Mark has laryngitis. I googled laryngitis and it said that it is "medical term for inflammation and swelling of the larynx, which is also known as the voice box." There was some redness and irritation around this area and there was some pus or phlem. I know, it's gross! Because Mark is already on a couple of antibiotics right now the ENT doctor just sent us home. He said if he still has voice hoarseness in the next couple of weeks to let him know but that it should subside.

I'm so thankful that it wasn't anything serious! Praise God for protecting us. Now we're working on getting Mark's lung capacity back up! He's started exercising again and is doing treatments to strenghten his body and his lungs! Thank you to all of you who have been praying for him and for our family! We've definitley felt your prayers!

Illinois vs. EIU

Today we went to the Illinois football game at the new Memorial Stadium. We share three season tickets with some friends and Mark and I had requested the tickets for todays game. We both attended EIU before moving on to Illinois State so it was fun to go back and watch Illinois play Eastern. I'm so glad that Mark chose to wear orange!!! A few years back, Illinois played Illinois State (where we both graduated). Mark insisted that we wear red and I promise that we were the only ones wearing red in our section. It didn't help that Mark was cheering excessively loud for ISU! I was mortified! ISU definitley lost big time to Illinois as Eastern lost today but it was still fun to watch the schools that we used to go to play against our now favorite team, Illinois!